Race

Being a farmer isn’t easy. One woman in Georgia found that getting assistance as a black farmer can be especially tough.

Shirley Sherrod said she found discrimination in the federal government’s farm assistance programs, and she and other farmers fought back in the biggest class action lawsuit in U.S. history. Listen to the episode to hear the results of the lawsuit, and what it meant for farmers across the country.

On this West Virginia Morning, we hear about a growing educational trend to get young students outside more often; how an elementary school in the Eastern Panhandle aims to provide more opportunities to its students with an outdoor classroom. Also, we hear a panel discussion from Wheeling on race and living as a minority in the historically white state of West Virginia.

The YWCA’s National mission is to empower women and eliminate racism. With that mission in mind, Wheeling’s YWCA held a panel discussion on race which focused on educating the community on the experience of being a minority in the historically white state of West Virginia.

High-profile confrontations between African-Americans and police officers have fueled racial tensions across the country. How do we in Appalachia talk about how these issues affect us here in the mountains?

Two rivers run through Charleston, West Virginia. While most of the city is situated on the Kanawha, it’s the Elk River that demarcates the West Side from the governmental and business center of Charleston. Today, the West Side is the poorest neighborhood in Charleston.

A few years back, West Virginia writer and filmmaker Danny Boyd stepped into the world of graphic novels, releasing books under his cult-classic Chillers franchise, as well as other stories. One of which was Carbon, a mythological world set in an alternative West Virginia and dealing with an ancient race of people and their effect on the coal industry thousands of years later. The follow-up, Salt, was released in late-2016 and picks up where Carbon left off. We spoke with Boyd about his latest graphic novel, some of the social and environmental issues addressed in the story and why he’s just now getting around to promoting it the way he would have liked.

On West Virginia Morning, a discussion about race relations in West Virginia from two young black women. One talks with two leaders at West Virginia University about the Black Lives Matter movement and a senior at West Virginia State University talks about her experience with racism.

These stories on West Virginia Morning from West Virginia Public Broadcasting – telling West Virginia’s story.

22-year-old Takeiya Smith is a student at West Virginia State University, a historically black institution of higher education. Takeiya says over the past few years, as racial tensions have become more visible across the country, she’s become more vocal about the importance of racial justice, but she didn’t always like to speak up.

While she was in middle and high school in Putnam county, Takeiya says she did experience racism, but she mostly kept quiet because she didn’t want to cause any trouble. In this interview, she talks about some of her experiences.

With Election Day just a few weeks away, you’ve likely seen a political sign or two on a street corner in your town, or maybe in your neighbor’s front yard. Up in Wheeling, one community is responding to the defacing of a candidate’s sign after spray paint blackened out her face and racially disparaging phrases covered her name.

Members of the Kanawha County Community gathered at West Virginia State University earlier this week to discuss race and the ongoing battle for equality.

Community members, officials and students took part in a discussion at West Virginia State looking at different racial issues effecting West Virginia and Kanawha County. The discussion was organized by students and the American Friends Service Committee.

Several racing groups and charity organizations have spoken out against the bill, which calls for fees that range from 500 to a thousand dollars for 5 and 10K racecourses. The bill still needs the approval of city council.